The importance of travel

Travel makes you modest. It makes you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world - Gustave Flaubert

I am so happy at the moment as I am experiencing such an enjoyable holiday on one of the most beautiful Pacific Islands, Fiji. For this week’s motivational message, I would like to enlighten you on the absolutely amazing benefits of travel.

Firstly, travel really opens your mind. It clears up any misconceptions or prejudices that you have of people that don’t look like you. Usually we tend to judge people by the standards of our own country and far too often we exercise ethnocentric attitudes where we feel that we are better than them. When you travel and see these “foreign” people in their own country, you develop a new-found respect for them. You get to appreciate their values and beliefs that are not necessarily in line with yours but are still noble and ethical. Travel teaches you to be more tolerant and empathetic.

Secondly, travel helps you to take a break from your daily routine. There are the accompanying stresses of work life in whatever field you are in. Sometimes, you tend to get a bit jaded with the daily “same old, same old”. Travel allows you a window of opportunity to escape from the humdrum of life so that you can reset, recalibrate, rejuvenate and recharge for another term or year at work. Travel also allows you to step back and reflect on problems at work so on your return, you can find solutions. It also teaches you to focus on the big picture and not to sweat the small stuff.

Another reason to travel is that it sharpens your creativity. In a new place where you are completely out of your comfort zone, you are met with certain challenges and you need to figure out how to overcome obstacles. New neural pathways are created in the brain because of the new stimuli and the cognition that’s involved to tackle new problems. On your return home, you tend to be more creative and resourceful. It is amazing how many little bits and pieces of ingenuity you pick up in new places that you have visited.

Further, travel helps to broaden your mind. Although reading books or surfing the net or even interacting on social media platforms introduces you to other places, there’s nothing like experiencing first-hand encounters with people, cultures and terrains of different lands. Especially these days when news reports are so biased, you can be more discerning about what you read or hear because you have actually been there.

Perhaps the most important thing about travel for me, personally, is that it allows you to appreciate the exquisite beauty of our most beautiful universe. To stand back and observe the scintillating beauty of a sunset in another land, gasp at the extraordinarily, breath-taking vista that presents itself below from the peak of a mountain or be mesmerised about the psychedelic colour palette found in the feathers of a sub-tropical bird and then to mouth an involuntary “wow” - this is what travel does. Travelling to less developed countries and appreciating their natural environment that is still untouched by industrialisation makes you more determined to bolster your efforts in saving our planet. You also appreciate the resourcefulness of people that have to do without and realise that a container is a container and your cupboard doesn’t have to be matchy matchy and colour co- ordinated. Reuse, recycle and reduce.

One of the weirdest things about travel is the more you leave home, the more you appreciate what you left behind and what you have. Home is a special place and inasmuch you have enjoyed your time abroad, there is no better place than home which is the beautiful Gold Coast in sunny Queensland for me. When you return home you feel you don’t really care about the triple convection oven, nor do you need to drool over the latest four by four vehicle in one of the new sexy colours or yearn for that sparkling, diamond bracelet that looked so tantalising in the brochure - it really doesn’t matter because once you have visited a third world country you realise you are already living like a king anyway. Accumulating material things doesn’t really matter as Mark Twain so rightly says, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Hopefully, you pencil in some time for travel this year. It doesn’t have to be fancy or abroad; even a day trip to a new place can have amazing, therapeutic benefits. Have a fabulous week and a fantastic year ahead, folks.